BMT move from Olympia awaits Grays Harbor OK

By Rolf Boone | The Olympian • Published April 18, 2008

OLYMPIA – A steel tank manufacturer on West Bay Drive plans to move to Grays Harbor County in the next six months but has extended its lease with South Sound developer Tri Vo, the company's new landlord.

Last month, Vo of Triway Enterprises paid $1.2 million for property partly occupied by the Olympia division of Brown-Minneapolis Tank, a steel tank manufacturer at 1218 West Bay Drive, according to Thurston County Assessor office data.

The property seller was Bojo Investments LLC of Olympia, said Jennifer McNeil, a customer service representative at the assessor's office.

The purchase was confirmed Thursday by Vo through his assistant, Tori Cookson. Cookson said Vo has yet to announce plans for the property.

Meanwhile, BMT, which has manufactured steel tanks for the petrochemical industry in Olympia for about 10 years, is waiting for building permits to be approved so that it can complete its move to Grays Harbor County, business manager Rollie Irwin said.

BMT plans to move into a larger home at the Satsop Development Park in Elma, Irwin said.

The company set up a temporary operation at the industrial park with 10 employees in June, but hopes to move the entire company and its 43 remaining employees this year after it gets building-permit approval from Grays Harbor County building officials, Irwin said.

While it waits for the building permits, the company has extended its lease at its current home, Irwin said.

"We have up to another 21 months, if we want it," he said.

The company leases a 13-acre site on West Bay that has about 30,000 square feet of manufacturing space and a facility for painting tanks.

Before BMT moved to the site in 1998, it was home to Reliable Steel, a company whose origins date back to the 1940s.

Thurston County Economic Development Council executive director Michael Cade said he worked with BMT to try to find a new site in the county but was unable to.

Still, BMT has found a new home not far from Thurston County, he said.

"I'm sorry we couldn't keep them local, but I'm very excited to keep them in our region," he said.

David Schaffert, president and chief executive of the Thurston County Chamber of Commerce, said the "silver lining" in losing BMT to another county is that they still are in southwest Washington.

Rolf Boone covers business for The Olympian. He can be reached at 360-754-5403 or rboone@theolympian.com.